Sorry

Cloud storage provider Box announced today that it has acquired Streem, a small startup with some impressive technology in that area, for an undisclosed fee.

Streem’s technology is designed to make the personal cloud as seamless as possible – Streem embeds itself in the local operating system, allowing the cloud storage to function as an extension of the existing hard drive, and uses secret sauce to speed up media playback.

It’s Streem’s back end, however, that Box may be after – Streem was able to offer unlimited cloud storage for $20 per month thanks to aggressive compression and deduplication. A Box spokesperson said that Streem users migrating to Box will move to the 50GB tier of cloud storage.

The implications for Box’s own back end are clear. Box co-founder and CEO Aaron Levie said in an official blog post that customers in various industries could see real benefits from the integration of Streem’s technology.

“For customers across data-intensive industries like Media & Entertainment, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, and Manufacturing, this means instant access to far larger volumes of data than what your local drives can support,” he wrote. “For enterprises in regulated industries like Life Sciences and Financial Services, it means better protection and control of information and where it lives.”

Levie didn’t provide a timeline for the introduction of Streem features into Box, although the fact that Streem’s entire staff will be joining the larger company is probably a positive sign.

Streem launched in mid-April with a public beta, coming out of Y Combinator having raised $875,000 in VC funding. Box declined to provide any details about the terms and conditions of the deal, beyond noting that the purchase was funded by a mixture of cash and stock and that the transaction should close in “the coming weeks.”

Streem bears some similarities to Pied Piper, the fictional compression startup featured on the HBO comedy Silicon Valley – a fact that Streem noted in its announcement of the Box deal.

“We know what you're thinking,” said the statement, “but Pied Piper came after us, we promise!”

Join the Network World communities on Facebook and LinkedIn to comment on topics that are top of mind.